Markets recover lost ground

Yesterday saw European markets follow overnight gains on Asian markets to recover more of the ground lost earlier in the week.

US reporting season continued at pace, with Apple reporting better-than-expected Q1 results overnight on Tuesday. This trend continued as Caterpillar reported solid numbers before US trading yesterday morning. On the back of this, the ISEQ index closed up 39.44 points at 3217.95.

Bank stocks were broadly worse on the day as both AIB and Irish Life & Permanent lost ground. The former shed 0.3c to 7c, while the latter gave up 0.3c to close at 3.2c. Bank of Ireland remained steady at 11.2c.

Constructions shares were mixed with CRH adding 10.5c to 15.125 on the back of news that Semapa, its joint venture partner in the Portugal-based buildings materials company Secil, intends to exercise a call option to buy CRH’s 49% stake in the company for an equity value of €574m. Grafton Group followed suit by tacking on 3.5c to 3.24, while Kingspan shed 18c to 7.72.

In other news, Independent News & Media continued its recent good run, moving on 0.8c, or 3%, to 26.8c.